The Laughing Mill and Other Stories

t would have required a greater effort than I at the moment cared to make to have sat up and looked about me. The sun, I knew, had already sunk below the crest of the slope; the g

retched out like rigid arms, and the long grass which streamed along the gurgling w

he heavy revolutions of the great wheel. They were alone. David was in the mill-room finishing the da

he first day I came here, how there came a terrible sound that made me

ss David had forgotten to oil it properly. But I gave h

him," retorted Swanhilda, tossing back her yellow hair

love him; you are a little princess,

king?" inquired Swanhilda, folding her hands

ered, "I shall teach you

you think. I am old en

d laughing; "you are nothing but a child yet.

one else who will teach me. I will ask Da

ou learnt from h

, only that I am learning to speak English. He didn't want you to

ld you learn to speak with anyone b

arnest, half-laughing defiance. "No; I am my own, and there are other places b

e husky with dismay, "you will never

ry because David taught me English; and you must let him teach me th

ife, and that new life belongs to me!" The hand that held hers had turned cold, and he was pale and trembling. "I have kept y

he relented, and said, "Well, you may teach me about loving, if yo

line of her face and figure. "You belong to me," he repeated at last. "If you

it of the wheel, after biding its time so long in silence, had seemingly leapt exultingly into life at the first premonition of meditated wrong. Swa

games are over, are they? Can it be the devil's ga

d past invisibly, save where occasionally a rising eddy caught the dim starlight. The tall wheel, motionless now, and only discernible as a blacker imprint on the darkness, lurked like a secret enemy in ambush. The man's arm w

d make you happy but learning what love was; and now you have found ou

ove, and pretend before others that they do not feel it? When I first dreamed of love, it seemed to me lik

m find it out, would you, and part us? What! have you forgotten the fit he was in at my teaching you English a year

rt never beat as you make it beat, and my breath never came in long sighs as it does often now. Gloam used to say that he had brought me back from death to life; b

e and got used to it, you'll stop sighing and crying, and be as bright

o; I could not; I should feel ashamed. But why

so! And the pleasantest kind of right

ach other married-at least sometimes? and afte

alled in the parson to help them out. They're the folks that don't love each other right down hard, as you and I do. They're suspicious, and afraid of being left in the lurc

d, and they were not suspicious," ven

nd anxious to fill a son-in-law's pockets, I'd open mine, and gladly. But my father and mother were n

ngers, her eyes fixed absently on the darkness. The clasps of the necklace came unawares apart, and it slipped

said. "David, some h

r down beside him, fastened it again round her neck, and then kissed her face and li

ders, and said it would keep me from being hurt or drowned, but that I must never part from it. But

yours against mine, and have done with crying now, or I'll think

. "I leave you, David? Oh-ha, ha, ha! Oh, but you must never leave m

and crying in the same minute! Don't you know I wo

he thought I wasn't old enough-not old enou

rt laugh. "If anything knows about us, it's the old wheel there, waiting l

limmering shadowy pale through the darkness. "Say, 'I love

the day when they first met. Did his heart falter for a moment, realising how utterly s

ee our secret in my eyes. When I lie alone at night I am afraid to pray to God, as I used to do. What is it? Why do I

is no wrong-I swear there isn't. Listen, now in your ear: I lo

e low-impending rim. It swung the heavy structure partly round upon its axle. And straightway, upon the hollow night, echoed a faint yet appalling sound as of jeering laughter. Slowly it died away, and silence closed in once more, like da